Materials and Test Grid

Click Select Material to open the material database.

This is the fastest option when your material and operation are already in the database.

In the material selector you can:

• search by name or filter by category
• choose a material
• choose a thickness
• choose an operation (such as engrave or cut)
• click Apply settings

Material Manager is where you manage your own saved materials and review built-in presets.

Open it from the Manage button inside the material selector, or from the Tools menu.

Use it to:

• create new custom material entries
• edit existing custom entries
• organize settings for materials you use regularly

Saving good settings here means you do not need to find them again the next time you use the same material.

Use Material Test Grid when:

• you are using a material for the first time
• your current settings are not giving good results
• you want a measured way to compare power and speed combinations before running the real job

Open it from Tools > Material Test Grid.

Note: Material Test Grid is a Pro and above feature.

The test grid marks a grid of small patches on your material. Each patch uses a different combination of power and speed. After running the grid on a piece of scrap, you look at the real patches and find the one that gives the best result.

Grid layout:

• Columns and Rows - how many patches to include in the grid
• Patch Size - the size of each patch
• Gap - the space between patches

Power and speed ranges:

• Power Min and Power Max
• Speed Min and Speed Max

Advanced options:

• Bidirectional scanning (faster) - speeds up the test at the cost of some alignment precision
• Outline only (no fill hatching) - useful when you want to test cutting or outline quality
• Swap axes (rows=power, cols=speed) - lets you choose which axis represents power and which represents speed

Laser mode:

• M4 - Dynamic Power (Recommended) - adjusts power dynamically as speed changes, which usually gives more consistent results
• M3 - Constant Power - holds power constant regardless of speed

Visual Preview shows the grid layout before you send it to the machine.

Grid Data shows the exact power and speed value for each cell in the grid.

Use both together: the preview helps you understand the layout, and the data table lets you find the exact values for any cell you want to apply.

Inside the modal, you can choose to use the current connection or select a different port for the test grid job.

• Generate G-code - creates the grid output without sending it
• Save G-code - saves the output to a file
• Send to Laser - sends the grid directly to the machine

After running the grid on real material, find the patch that looks best. Click the matching cell in Visual Preview. Light Lane can apply those settings to your current workspace.

Once you know what works for a material, save those settings to Material Manager. That way you can use them again next time without repeating the test.